TikTok Translation for Captions: How it Works & Why It Matters

TikTok is one of the most used social media platforms out there, with almost 2 billion active users!

The reasons for it are endless – the videos are short and hold our attention, there are a million niches so everyone can find something to watch, and the auto-scroll feature lets us consume content with no distractions.

But there’s another thing that’s worth mentioning here, and that’s TikTok’s accessibility.

Back in the spring of ‘21, they introduced auto-captions, and the goal was, as per their official announcement, to foster an inclusive app environment by building products and tools that support their diverse community.

Then, one year later, in 2022, they added yet another feature to expand on this inclusivity, and that is the topic of today’s article: TikTok translation.

In this post, we’ll talk about what it is, why it’s useful, and how you can use it to your advantage.

Let’s get started!

What is the TikTok Translate Feature?

This, like any other translation service, lets users consume content even if it’s in a language different from their own.

We mentioned earlier how they introduced auto-generated captions a while back, and this doesn’t differ much from that feature – the translated text appears overlaid over the original English captions in a similar way to how you’d see subtitles in a movie.

So, for example, if you only speak English but a really cool video in, say, Dutch shows up on your For You Page, you need only tap on the ‘See Translation’ button at the bottom of the page.

https://p16-va-tiktok.ibyteimg.com/obj/musically-maliva-obj/506bd4f884d94737c0d9be05ff3ce8b2.jpeg

Source: https://newsroom.tiktok.com/en-us/auto-translations-and-captions

As you can see, all it takes is one click to overlay all the text on the screen – including the captions for spoken words.

So, you can now enjoy videos in any language, but it also means that other users can enjoy your videos even if they don’t speak your language.

By extension, this means that your videos are now available to a much wider audience, AKA you’ll have a much bigger reach.

Why Does TikTok Translate Captions?

We already mentioned the insanely high number of active users TikTok has, but did you know that more than 300 million are from the Asia-Pacific region (excluding China and India). That’s a lot of people – and many of them likely don’t speak English.

To bridge the language gap, TikTok has rolled out a new translation feature, making it easier for everyone to enjoy content.

The update also featured new additions like photosensitivity protection, text-to-speech for visually impaired users, and text stickers (which we’ll get into later). All these changes mean that, when your video hits the For You Page (FYP), it can truly go global, with your message reaching a much wider audience.

How Does the TikTok Translate Captions Feature Benefit Me?

We already touched on that question with a short answer – it increases your reach. But, of course, this isn’t the only benefit of translating your caption on TikTok. Since there are a few more we’d like to talk about here, let’s get started:

1. It Lets you Access New Markets

Before, if you wanted your brand to go global, you had to bring on a whole team of native speakers to help you with your advertizing efforts. But, with this handy feature, TikTok makes it easier to communicate with new audiences with just a click of a button.

By extension, this also means you’ll gain insight into the new market. By making your videos accessible to a new viewership, you’re also able to track what they like and what they don’t like and can then use that knowledge to cater to them in more effective ways.

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2. It Improves Your Metrics

Yes, all of them.

We’re not just talking about reach here, but engagement as well. Once your video hits the market you want it to hit, you’re accessing a whole new audience and, with them, a whole new demographic that can like, comment, and share your video.

We’re not making this up – TikTok for Business said it themselves – captions help impressions increase by over 54%!

But that’s not all – turning on TikTok translation also improves your ranking. Translation helps optimize your content with improved reach so SERPs recognize it as more popular & helpful and push it higher.

3. It Boosts Conversion & Sales

Okay, these metrics are important, but you, as a business owner, know that one of the most important metrics is sales.

Those impressions, followers, and engagements we talked about can all translate to revenue – especially if your content performs well and really hits it off with the new market.

4. It Helps You Get More Out of Your Ads

When you start an ad campaign on TikTok – even if it’s just one ad – one of the first things they’ll ask you to do is to set your target. This includes:

• Gender,
• Age group,
• Interests,
• Device,
• Location,
• Language…

And many other things.

But did you notice it also asks for language? Thanks to the translation tool, you can select multiple languages and let your ad be seen by more than just speakers from one specific country.

5. It Increases Your Virality Potential

Isn’t it every TikTok user’s dream to go viral?

The app makes it super easy, too, and it seems like there’s a new hit sensation every week, if not even more often. And by translating your captions, you’re letting your videos reach a wider audience and, therefore, making it easier for them to go viral.

TikTok Translation: Key Features

Now that we’ve covered the basics of what translated captions are and what they can bring to the table, let’s take a look at their features and how they can help your business grow.

1. Auto-generated Captions

This feature refers to the closed captions users can switch on to make content more accessible. Before this was added, users had to manually add captions to their videos if they wanted to reach a wider audience, but that’s not the case anymore.

This is what we were comparing to subtitles earlier – they exist to help users who are either hard of hearing or can’t listen to the audio for whatever reason.

Here’s what that looks like in action:

Source: my screenshots

2. Description Translation

This feature works very similarly to the captions, except that it refers to translating those captions.

Now, if you’re wondering how to translate captions on Tiktok, let’s go over what you need to do:

1. On your profile, select the three lines in the corner:

Source: my screenshots

2. Go to Setting and Privacy:

Source: my screenshots

3. In the Content & Display category, select Language:

Source: my screenshots

4. Toggle Always translate posts on:

Source: my screenshots

As you can see, you’ll be given the option to choose which language you want to translate from and also those you don’t want TikTok to translate for you.

3. Sticker Translations

Text stickers are the text elements users can add to their videos, and they can also be translated using TikTok’s built-in tool.

https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/63343441a1da9b07cf060122/63a0badd0067907a74b56f58_Text%20stickers.avif

Source: https://insense.pro/blog/tiktok-translation

To set it up, you need to follow the same steps as you did for the closed captions.

So, next time you go to TikTok to promote your products, you can rest assured in knowing that your videos can easily be translated – so you don’t have to target only the speakers of your native language!

TikTok Translation: Key Takeaways

• This feature lets users translate captions in videos so their content is accessible without the language barrier,
  
  
• Translating content helps you widen your audience, access new markets, improve engagement metrics, boost conversions, and increase sales,
  
  
• The feature also increases the chances of your videos going viral by making them available to more users worldwide,
  

• Key features include auto-generated captions, description translations, and translated text stickers,

You can easily enable translation in your settings tab.